Amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA)
and PCR-RFLP
Amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA)
and PCR restriction fragment length polymorphism
(PCR-RFLP) are fingerprinting techniques, which
involves the digestion of amplified community/pure
DNA followed by gel electrophoresis. The unique banding
patterns generated on gel can be used for microbial
identification or comparison of microbial communities
(McSweeney et al. 2007; Zhou et al. 2011). Acinas et
al. (1997) reported the use of ARDRA fingerprinting to
study spatial and temporal variation in bacterial marine
plankton diversity. Since then, it has found wider applications
as described in Tables 2 and 4. Resensbogenova
et al. (2004) applied this technique for rapid identification
and diversity analysis of rumen protozoa in sheep.
Similarly, Singh et al. (2011) studied the diversity of
rumen protozoa in Surti buffaloes based on ARDRA
and found that Dasytricha, Isotricha, Ostracodinium,
and Polyplastron were predominant. In a study aimed
to explore methanogens diversity in Murrah buffaloes